~how does your garden grow..

..or where do you draw the line between photography and digital art? I recently snapped the photo to the left shortly after I'd finished misting my little porch vegetable garden. It was only one in a series of images, but the one I felt was the best in composition and colour. I submitted the photo to a professional photographer friend for critique. Other than a single class in Photography Basics while in college prior to the invention of the digital camera or Photoshop my professional photographic training is limited to life experience. The comments I received along with the edited photo below were as follows:" Did you use glycerine? Nice effect of water on the fruit." "The smaller green tomato distracts. You might have plucked it along with some of the less than perfect leaves or merely edited out the distracting portions with Photoshop." The tighter cropping was not justified other then the mention that it had been done.
I wonder if I struggle with the fact that now my original photograph is no longer a true representation of my little tomato hanging on my tenderly cared for tomato plant or the fact that I may be just a little defensive that I have never learned how to use Photoshop to enhance my work, or for that matter received professional instruction on how to effectively use my Nikon D50. Maybe its time I took a couple continuing education classes. I would invite and enjoy any comments from my professional and not so professional photographer viewers. *:)

~Singing for our supper..

As a young child, my favorite holiday, with possibly the exception of Christmas was Halloween. My brother and I, and a few years later my little sister, would rush home from school in anticipation of that magical night when we would wiggle into our one-of-a-kind homemade Halloween costumes painstakingly hand sewn by our creative mother. We'd quickly down a steaming bowl of Mom's vegetable soup to help ward off the chill of the fall night, grab our empty candy bags fashioned from pillowcases, and wait for Dad to put his coat on and pick up the keys to the green and white Buick station wagon. Then once the sun had set and the moon was on the rise, off we'd go to gather our loot amongst the other goulies and goblins from our area neighbors. It didn't always come easy. Sometimes we would have to sing for our "supper" or trick for our treat. But when we'd finally return home, cheeks flushed, tired and happy, we would spill out our goodies onto the floor, the terror of having to perform on a split second's request dissolved into the spooky shadows of the night beyond our cozy and familiar family room. There we would sort, barter and trade our nights haul way past our usual bedtimes. To this day a vague memory of a bellyache or two still remains from the days following All Hallow's Eve.

Some of the cutest stamps I've had the pleasure of working with are the clear sets from Kim van der Sanden 's My Favorite Things. Kim's wise insight in teaming with Illustrator, Christy Beckwith has, in my opinion set this this stamp company apart from all others.

~Switching Gears..

Its been a busy summer. My sister and niece who come every summer for the summer all the way from Denver have headed home now, and my days and evenings are not nearly as full. I hadn't realised how long it had been since I'd posted to my blog.
Since they left I've been having fun with a few of my A*Muse stamps. It all started with my wanting to find a Santa stamp that might be appropriate to the Florida climate. A Muse had a Santa in sunglasses and flowered swimming trunks who looked as though he was dreaming of surfing, but alas.. no surfboard. And then i ran across my little surfer boy. He led me to the mermaid and the palm tree and one thing led to another. The result was this RAK made for a friend who isn't a stamper but loves the sea.

It's occurred to me random acts of kindness don't necessarily have to be shared between other bloggers or stampers and I'm slowly working through my list.

Pocket Card 01

Since I've not posted any work for sometime, I took a look back in my archives and ran across this fun pocket card I put together one rainy afternoon. It was one of those projects that just came together without any real forethought or planning. I pulled out bits and pieces of this and that and started building until I though it was finished. I guess some people call that creativity. *:)

Tagged

Rebecca Oehlers tagged me a long time ago but I never got around to responding. Yes, I AM remiss, but I will I will share a few things about myself with you. First, please take a look at hemidemisemiquaver,Rebecca's Blog. This is one talented and interesting lady! Be sure and take time to read her profile.

1. As a baby my hair was bright orange.
2. My sister is my best friend and although we live over 1500 miles apart we talk on the phone nearly every day, and sometimes more than once.
3. I lived in New York City for five years with my harlequin Great Dane, Catherine Von Meistersinger and all the shopkeepers in our neighborhood knew her and loved her almost as much as I did.
4. As the director of a history museum I had the good fortune to meet such dignataries as Ronald Regan, Michael Gorbachev, Margaret Thatcher, and Edwina Sandys, Winston Churchill's granddaughter.
5. More than anything I enjoy teaching and passing on information and ideas to others.
6. I think I am a lazy person.
7. I wish I had my Mother's drive and ethics of responsibility.
8. I have a smile that is hard for me to contain. It usually stretches ear to ear.
9. The two things I miss most in life: My Dad and my horses.
10. My niece is my inspiration and Zoe, my lively whippet keeps me sane.
11. I hope to live to a ripe old old age, but die young.

{ i've not been remiss }

I've just taken time to smell my flowers..

{ Birthdays & Bones in the Flower Garden }

If my sister-in-law isn't off with her girlfriend playing bingo, or busy with her own business, you can find her in her garden caring for her myriad of beautiful blooms. I believe she has nearly every kind of lilly imaginable planted in her garden. Most are transplants from my brother and sister-in-law's Atlanta home garden. I chose this stamp for her birthday card because it reminded me of her.


I like these stamp images by Karen Stolper at American Art Stamp for their unusual design and uniqueness. And of course the "Fetch" image was one I had to have for my personal "Gone 2 the Dogs" collection. The layout was inspired by the SCS Layout Challenge SC 118. The text along the side was digitally created.

{ Happy Mother's Day, Mom }

When I ran across this Hallmark card image this morning I had to laugh. Mom is always fussing that she can't figure out how to make that darn DVD player to work so she can the DVD of those good looking Il Divo fellas or her Boxed Set of the entire collection of the West Wing television series, or that her email is all messed up and she can't find the latest pictures my sister and niece have sent her. (She doesn't ask me about her cell phone very often because we both have to ask my niece how to do that.) It seems you aren't alone, Mom, lots of Mothers apparently have the same issues. Why else would Hallmark made this card so don't feel bad. You've spent years raising us, taking care of us, doing for us and loving us. We enjoy doing these little things for you.

This is the card I made for my wonderful mother in celebration of Mother's Day.
The paper is Basic Grey from the Perhaps collection and SU Pretty in Pink and Whisper White. The flower stamp is from Stampendous and the sentiment is an old PSX stamp which i purchased several years ago. The twill tape is from the Martha Stewart collection at Michaels. I stamped the flower image with black Versamark Ink and heat embossed it with black detail embossing powder. The white detail on the flower was achieved with bleach.

Happy Mother's Day, Mom
I love you!

{ pitching horseshoes & my brother's shirt }

My first memory of Horseshoe Beach was when I was still living at home outside of Atlanta, at least, still, during the summers. On one of those Christmases our family set out on vacation to southern Florida. We spent our first night in a little fishing village in a true fisherman's cabin. It belonged to the father of my brother's best friend and was built on stilts. You could look between the cracks in the floorboards to the ground below. I think Mother was worried about snakes and probably didn't sleep too well that night. It was already dark when we arrived. Dad went down to the marina to see if he could find a fisherman who might be willing to part with a mess of fish as all the grocery stores we had passed were closed on account of it being a holiday. I had never eaten mullet but to this day, I think it is some of the best fish I have ever eaten.

That was over forty years ago and until the last four or five years Horseshoe looked pretty much the same. My brother continued to return regularly with his friend Ralph. He spent more and more if his leisure time away from the hustle and bustle of the big city relaxing on the porch with friends or casting his lines for the elusive BIG ONE to the tune of a well oiled in-board's steady hum in accompaniment to Jimmy Buffett's lyrics floating lazily over the water. My brother and his wife are now retired and have completely modeled and remodeled one of those fishing cabins into a lovely home. They have moved lock, stock, two dogs, a cat, and three fourths of their Atlanta flower gardens to this sleepy fishing village where you can often find my brother, surrounded by several friends, sporting his Captain's hat, shucking oysters, shelling shrimp, and stirring a gigantic pot of gumbo. Now my family and I look forward to many more Horseshoe memories. My brother was the inspiration behind this colourful Lockhart stamped card.

{ in recognition of National Scrapbooking Day }

I started my paper arts adventure as a scrapbooker after seeing the amazing things my little sister was creating for our family. A book of Christmases Past sets on our mother's coffee table in her living room that documents some of the joyous and memorable times our family spent together over the years. Another labor of love sets on the a coffee table in the family room a memorial to the most wonderful husband and father in the world.


To date my attempts have been smaller and unfinished, but it opened a door into the more immediate gratification of rubber stamping and cardmaking. I wanted to share with you the first page of one of my scrapbooks, The Whippersnapper! A book dedicated to my faithful companion and best friend, Zoe. I am also in the process of creating scrapbooks for my mother, my sister and niece, and my brother and his wife chronicling our Alaskan Cruise late last summer. I approach my scrapbooking much the same as I approach creating a card. Composition, colour, attention to detail, and meaningful text expression, which often results in laboring over a page for days until its just right.

Wishing everyone a bright and creative National Scrapbooking Day! Take a little time today to pursue your art!

{ my new banner }

Not long ago I was one of the lucky winners of a banner design which Melissa Kulesa offered as blog candy on her Stamping Through the Tulips blog.
I'd like to thank Melissa for designing my banner. She has been such a patient and nice lady to work with through the design process. Take time to see her banner designs and watermarks and if you don't already have a banner or want a fresh new look, I highly recommend her. Thanks so much Melissa!!

{ the Lockhart puppy meets the Challenge }

I've been exploring SCS beyond just looking at the most recent daily gallery postings and am amazed at how much I've been missing. Motivation is often an issue for me, coming up with an idea completely from scratch. So I was thrilled when I took the time to look into the Wednesday Card Sketch Challenge. This was the result of Beate's email answer to a question I had about dimensions in particular layout I'd seen posted in the daily gallery. After reading more about the Challenges, I decided the Sketches Challenge would be a good vehicle of motivation for my creative inspiration.

So , with that, I pulled out a stamped image I've wanted to wanted to finish for a long time , but hadn't because I wanted it to be special. The Lockhart Stamp Company, in my opinion, has some of the highest quality stamps out there. The fineness of the detail is exceptional and the images possess a contemporary elegance ranging from whimsical to classic in design. You can purchase the Lockhart stamps from Ellen Hutson, LLC along with a wide variety of papers, inks, "tools, toys, and treasures". The card I had inquired about ended up being SC118, the identification number assigned to that particular week's Sketch Challenge. I was off and running and when I finished my card was pleased with the result.